H.M Hjälpkryssare Waria
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H.M Hjälpkryssare Waria was a cargo ship turned auxiliary cruiser for the Swedish navy during ww2. Originally built as M/S Waria for the shipping company Sveabolaget in 1938, she was quickly requisitioned by the Swedish navy in 1939 due to the Soviet invasion of Finland and rebuilt as a lightly armed but still valuable small warship. From 1940 she served in navy as a cruiser, mainly preforming escorting duties between the mainland and Gotland until the end of the war, seeing no action during her time as a war ship. She was handed back to Sveabolaget in 1945 and stripped of her weaponry, returning to civilian duties, she would be scrapped in 1985.
History
In the late 1930’s, the Swedish shipping company Sveabolaget ordered a few new cargo ships named Waria, Warun and Wiros (Often referred to as the W ships) to handle cargo around the Baltic sea. One of these ships, M/S Waria, would be built in 1938 to handle cargo in the Landsort region of the Stockholm Archipelago. However, war was brewing and when the USSR invaded Finland, Sweden thought themselves next. Due to this coupled with the serious lack of warships in the Swedish navy at the time, a multitude of different civilian ships were requisitioned by the navy to be rebuilt and repurposed as warships. M/S Waria along with Warun and Wiros would be called in for service, being rebuilt into auxiliary cruisers in 1939 at the Finboda shipyard. M/S Waria would be equipped with the armament of out of service warships. Her two 12 cm Kan m/94C originally sat on the coastal defense ship HM Pansarbåt Thor and her two 57mm ssk m/89B came from the coastal defense ship HM Pansarbåt Äran, her 8mm machine guns however were fresh from the factory. She was also modified to carry and drop mines and depth charges.
M/S Waria as a cargo ship.
The newly remade H.M Hjälpkryssare Waria received the pennant number 4 and was put into service in the Stockholm squadron, mainly spending her time escorting ships from the mainland to Gotland and back. Towards the end of the war in 1944 she was moved to the Norrland Department up north until the end of the war in 1945. Post war she was stripped of her military gear and handed back to Sveabolaget where she returned to carrying cargo across the Baltic. In 1961 she would be sold off to a Jugoslavian company and renamed Plavnik, this would later be changed to Rasa when she became an animal transport ship. Serving in Jugoslavia for a while she would be retired and scrapped in 1985.
Armament and stats
Length: 69,8 Meters
Width: 10,7 Meters
Draught: 3,7 Meters
Deplacement: 883 Tons
Crew: 68 Men
Speed: 12 Knots (All thanks to that 1230 HP Atlas Polar engine.)
Main armament: 2 x 12cm Kan m/94C, one forward and one aft. They could fire around 10 shells per minute over a range of around 9 km.
12 cm cannon’s available shells:
Hpgr m/94B, 21 kg with 880 grams of filler, 740 m/s.
Stgr m/40 (A/B), 22,5 kg with 1,63 kg filler, 725 m/s.
Secondary armament: 2 x 57mm Ssk m/89B, on each side of a raised platform towards the aft midship. They could fire around 35 shells per minute and had a range of around 5km.
57 mm cannon’s available shells:
Stgr m/89, 2,7 kg with 97 grams of filler, 704 m/s
Slpgr m/44, 2,7 kg with 60 grams of filler, 704 m/s
Sgr m/28, 2,7 kg with 230 grams of filler, 704 m/s
Slsgr m/28, 2,5 kg with 130 grams of filler, 700 m/s
AA Armament: 2 x 8mm Lvksp m/36.
Additional armament: 2 x Sjunkbombskastare m/33C, 92 mines.
